The Beach Bum’s Guide to Landing Pages
If you construct your landing pages right, you’ve got a lot of beach time ahead of you. Your landing page is the first step to capturing all that traffic you’re paying for. A well-made landing page could be the difference between a website that’s your hobby and a website that funds your vacations.
If you’re spending cash on pay per click or other advertising, there are several crucial principles you must follow (if you want to make money)…
What Makes a Good Landing Page?
1. The headline and copy correspond to the ad that triggered the page.
If your ad is targeted to people looking for golf attire, your landing page should focus on golf attire, and not on other items that could distract from the main focus, such as golf clubs.
2. The focus is on getting visitors to take one specific action.
The landing page works on the basis of a most wanted response (MWR). It is designed to get the target audience to take ONE specific action, such as making a purchase or subscribing to a newsletter.
3. There are no distracting navigational links.
Unlike the homepage, the purpose of the landing page is not to get the users to browse the site, but to stay on the page and carry out the MWR. Tests have shown that landing pages with too many navigational links consistently under-perform. Just stick to the basics: a company logo or header for recognition along with a link to the homepage are sufficient. Avoid having any links that distract from carrying out the MWR.
4. The copy is short.
The copy on the landing page is usually shorter and more straightforward than the copy on your homepage. Remember to keep the look and feel of your landing page consistent with the rest of your website.
5. There is a prominent subscription form or checkout option.
The action you want the user to take should be available on the landing page itself; the user should not have to click to another page.
Below is an example of a landing page we use to get visitors who click on our meditation-related ads to sign up for a free online course. Notice the short copy, prominent signup form, and the lack of a confusing navigation menu…
[This is an excerpt from a 13 page report on Landing Page Construction we're making available for free for 5 days. You can get the full report here and see that landing page example immediately.]It’s available for 5 days.
Hi Mike/Vishen & Co.
Just downloaded and read the article, really great content, fantastic advice as ever but I have one concern…
Whenever I read this kind of advice I am left thinking – will it work for corporate visitors to my site?
Perhaps it’s just me but every book or article I’ve read on this style of internet marketing tends to focus on consumer-focused, low-cost products.
As suggested in your article, I checked out about 10 competitors, none of them are doing landing pages off their adwords and these are mega-corporates. Clearly that fact will give me an edge and I can’t wait to try some new changes based on your suggestions but back to my original point…
To me, a landing page with an mp3 snippet, slick testimonial and an email grab may work well for consumers but can you get the same results with a corporate demographic?
Please prove me wrong!
This is an excellent question and obviously the answer depends on your market, your target customer, etc.
However, if I had to take a guess, I would say that a targeted landing page will always outperform the main landing page.
You don’t have to make it look like a direct response letter to make it more targeted. You can still customize the headlines to boost your conversion rate and I would most definitely also come up with something (a special report, video, pdf, etc.) to capture your visitors email address.
I always say… behind every company there is a group of people… so it does not matter who you are selling… at the end of the day you still have to sell someone and not a faceless corporate identity.
Great advice as ever Mike.
I think you’re bang on the money with the “faceless corporate identity” point.
So many corporates have a landing page that is just a homepage or product page that churns off their services and customers but I suspect that this is a turn-off to most people.
I have a corporate background but the sites that excite me are the ones that talk with honesty, clarity and passion, I want to see the character behind the words which is why I love the material and content you folks provide.